1/2/2015 Jelly, The Underrunners & Nine Day Decline @ The Dublin Castle

After a good night on Saturday in Camden on Sunday night I'm back again, but at a different venue. Not as cheap as the Unicorn, but if you are on the cheap list it's only a fiver for four bands at the Dublin Castle and £7 otherwise which is still great value for money. The ale on tap is reasonably priced but not as cheap as the bottled stuff at the Unicorn, but the Old Rosie cider has gone up massively in price at the Dublin Castle over the past year and is now heading into BrewDog territory. Which is where is was before the Dublin Castle tonight....

Unfortunately I miss the first band the Love Me Tenders. I do catch some of the set by The Underrunners though.

This band are new to me but have an interesting mixture of styles. A rockabilly guitarist playing Goth? Well I guess Billy Duffy was doing that back in the 1980's - which is very much like where this band sound like they are from.

The Underrunners certainly don't look like a Goth band, but they sound more than a little like Sisters Of Mercy. They are good at what they do though, so definitely worth checking out.

Next up is a band much more familiar to me.

This is the first show Jelly have played for a month or so but they are tight, polished and very professional.

Jelly's influences seem to mainly date from the 1970's and 80's but there still seems to be something current and vital about their sound. The the standard of musicianship is very high and you can tell these are people who have been around and 'paid their dues' before this band was formed. They have learned to write a decent song and they have proved with their debut album - work on the second is in progress.

The onstage and off chemistry shows this band are good friends as well as bandmates - they all seem to work so well together.

Although their album 'TroubaDour, WiZard,The QueEn and the MaChine' (intentional capitals although I HAVE been drinking) sounds great with it's production and mix it sounds even more powerful live with Martin beating the living daylights out of the (house) drumkit in Bonham style and the riff from 'Miss Behaviour' sounding really heavy. This is a band I always really enjoying seeing play.

Last on the bill tonight are Nine Day Decline - another band who play well and don't sound how they look. Plenty of Goth influence like one of tonight's earlier band and players who have obviously been around and paid their dues over the years.